As AI becomes ubiquitous, what will be the role of humans? This four-part series discusses humanity's enduring value to encourage more startups to improve our condition. The full premise is detailed below.*
Purpose is our reason for existence. For founders, purpose helps define your vision and values, determine and concentrate on the top priorities, and optimize resource allocation. AI may approach sentience but cannot replace purpose. In the same way, we cannot let others define our purpose.
Purpose offers us numerous benefits. Instead of replacing purpose, AI can enhance it. Let's look at both aspects.
The Value of Purpose
Philosophy will debate whether AI has sentience and purpose. For humans, the strongest purpose originates and grows internally.
Startup founders often emerge to solve a problem that bothers or damages them. Their passion derives from an obsession to fulfill a purpose.
"The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive,
but in finding something to live for." – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
You may find purpose in supporting and bettering the world. Ideally, your pursuit leads to innovation, prosperity, and recognition.
AI cannot replace passion, but it can help you accomplish yours by offering more time, ideas, and options.
AI Augmentation
AI offers founders many benefits to help them reach their purpose.
Launch. Before computers, founders needed a ton of capital to start.
Now, you can utilize AI to quickly generate ideas, find solutions, and engage customers. The founder should still review, approve, and monitor progress.
Speed. When approached thoughtfully, automation can increase efficiency, consistency, and quality. When done haphazardly, however, you move faster in the wrong direction. If you have a clear product-market fit and a quality process for supporting customers, determine the best way for AI to streamline many processes.
AI can also help experiment with new features, systems, and marketing by offering and testing various options. You still want to conduct experiments where you gauge feedback and continuously adjust.
Pivot. When exploring new markets and needs, AI can be useful for reviewing options and measuring outcomes.
However, founders must remember that AI responds based on what it knows. If you want to get ahead of the curve or measure the sentiment of your target audience, you must own the feedback process.
AI will continue to be wildly powerful and useful. But it cannot replace our purpose – doing so would diminish humanity.
Founders need a purpose to maintain their resolve and focus their energy. I hope founders build startups that discover and revitalize purpose in others.
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This post was written by me with AI editing. The image is AI generated.
* Premise: Change inevitably involves tradeoffs. As AI continues to advance, solving complex and widespread problems, we must consider what humanity might lose in the process. This four-part series on What Makes Humanity explores how failure, connection, creativity, and purpose benefit humanity in the hope that startups build solutions where AI and humanity converge meaningfully.
Previous posts are Startups at the Convergence of Innovation and Humanity, Part 1: The Value of Failure, Part 2: The Value of Connection, and Part 3: The Value of Creativity.
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